Paint

I know, I know, you are all curious what the 20-month old was up to this afternoon. Well you are in luck as these pictures should give you a pretty good idea.

"Who needs a paint brush when you can use your foot!"

"Look what I did, Mommy!"

"Cheese"

" My footprint"

"That was fun! Now time to clean-up the mess."

"I can wash my feet off all by myself"

"Look at my HUGE water-filled diaper"

"All clean and chilaxing {this is Daddy's word -- hope I spelled it right}"

As you can see, he had fun PAINTING in the bathtub! And, I have to admit, it was a pretty good idea because it was super easy to clean up :)

P.S. The paint was completely non-toxic -- no worries!

P.S.S. The little guy daredevil jumped {literally} out of his bed again early this morning {don't worry, he didn't even cry this time} so we are REALLY going to make the switch to a toddler bed tomorrow night before he breaks his neck. Wish us luck!

Our Week in Review

One week ago today, David and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that five wonderful years have gone by already! I had intentions of writing a sappy post on our special day, and reminiscing with pictures; however, that clearly didn't happen {oh well! -- see a little explanation of our day below}. But, in order to redeem myself just a little {something late is better than never, right?}, here is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day!

Mr. and Mrs. David Harris!!!

And, we did have a very nice anniversary! David took the day off and we spent the morning and afternoon hanging out at home with Ryan, our single greatest joy in the last 5 years! That evening, Dad graciously accepted my invitation to babysit, and David and I enjoyed a nice, expensive dinner at McKendrick's Steak House. Ironically, the total of our dinner bill (before tip) was $108.13 {the date of our 5th anniversary -- if you didn't get it yet}!

The Proof!

Then we headed over to Cafe Intermezzo for some coffee and dessert before heading home to catch the end of the Atlanta Falcons first preseason game {we are very excited about football starting again in this family!}. We enjoyed our night and look forward to what is in store for us and our family in the years to come!

As for the rest of the weekend, I really have no idea what we did with the exception of going to the pool for a quick swim, taking Ryan to Touch-a-Truck {an annual event hosted by the City of Alpharetta},

OLD fire truck

Police car ... hopefully Ryan's one and only experience in the back!!!

Garbage truck -- "pee-yew"!

UPS delivery truck

Army truck

The 'FUN BUS' {it had a slide out the back!}

and having family movie night {we watched Ice Age}. It is nice to have low-key weekends like this from time to time, especially the three-day kind :)

Since then {our week has been nothing but low-key}, Ryan and I have been on two play dates, met our Mom's group at the park to play, had story time with Grandma Snazzy {the sweetest old lady that reads to kids in the community room at Kroger}, shopped for fall clothes, and taken lunch from the Fickle Pickle to Aunt Laura and Grammy at school. And, to add to it, I tutored for 4 hours {Monday and Wednesday nights}, and had two atypical moles re-excised {= NOT FUN}. My favorite part of our week was on Tuesday night, though, as D, R, and I enjoyed a most awesome night together having dinner at CANS Taqueria and then ice cream at Scoops! I love finding new, fun, quaint little places to go!

I can certainly tell that summer is coming to an end as lots of activities are starting up again, and I am so glad that Ryan and I finally have met some other moms and kiddos, and have fun stuff to do to fill our weeks; however, I am glad it is Friday and I am looking forward to another relaxing, do nothing kind of weekend!

Shoes, Sinks and more

A few things for your Saturday morning enjoyment ...

1. If you are in need of some help with your shoes {or really anything for that matter}, I know just the little guy for the job :) This is what I discovered on Wednesday morning when I realized that all my shoes were missing {not one of them was in the closet were they normally are!}.



2. The little guy's new favorite spot is in the bathroom sink, and he fits perfectly! He can also turn the water on, which is slightly scary as he has no idea that one is hot and the other is cold. Good thing our water heater is turned way, way down!

And, if you are wondering what we have been up to this past week, we have been spending LOTS of time visiting with family as my great uncle {Ama's brother-in-law} passed away on Tuesday after being in ICU for about a week. However, despite the circumstances, we REALLY enjoyed seeing everyone from the Hawkins side of my family {many of whom we haven't seen in about 4 years}. Additionally, I can confirm {after spending the better part of the last 3 days there}, that Ryan LOVES Ama and Grandaddy's house ... Grandaddy has about 20 singing, dancing toys that Ryan thinks are the best thing ever, and they have a train {that probably dates back to when Alan was little} that he likes playing with.

Just a few of the entertaining toys :)

So, after a busy week, we are looking forward to a relatively low key weekend at home. Hope you have a good one!

Daredevil

Hi y'all,

This is Ryan. What? You didn't think I could type? I know, I'm pretty advanced for a 19-month old.

Well, Mommy is busy cleaning up one of my many messes so I decided to play around on this computer thing. I am not really sure how it works but I do love climbing into the chair, and typing on the keyboard.

Mommy tells me that I have turned into a real daredevil in the last 24 hours, just like my Daddy. I am not really sure what "daredevil" means {do you know?}. I also have no idea how that makes me like Daddy {and I don't care because he is the coolest person I know}, but I'm sure I will understand one day.

What I can tell you is that I had a blast last night, climbing onto Mommy and Daddy's bed and then jumping off face first. It was SO much fun and worth the pain! I was glad that Mommy decided to make some homemade chocolate chip cookies downstairs because she wouldn't have let me have all this fun {plus, the cookies are yummy!}. And, after such good practice last night, I decided to climb out of my crib for the first time this morning too {I have heard Mommy talking about me not doing this in the last few weeks and had to show her I could}! You see, I have a stuffed dog that I LOVE and I like to throw it on the floor in the morning and whine until Mommy comes in and picks it up {normally}. This morning, however, I decided I would just get it myself, so I did {I am very independent you know}! For some reason, getting to the floor this time hurt a lot more than I thought it would though. I cried a little and Mommy came running into my room, but I am tough and showed her that I was just fine.

I then overheard Mommy and Daddy {he was still home too, which made me pretty happy} talking about it while I was watching Elmo, and it sounds like I will be getting a new bed soon now. I cannot wait! I am over this crib thing anyway!

Love,
Ryan

P.S. I am sure that Mommy will post some pictures of my new bed soon. She loves taking pictures! So, stay tuned.

Hot, HOt, HOT!

We had dinner tonight at the local pizza joint (aka, Brooklyn Joe's) and then took a trip over to the park for a little playtime before it got dark. This is the first time that we have been to the park in weeks (besides a short visit on the 4th of July since we watched fireworks at a park). It is just too dang HOT! Even tonight at 8:00PM it was still 88 degrees outside, which actually didn't feel too bad considering it was 100 to 105 today with the heat index.

After chasing balls, dogs, rocks, and sticks in the grassy field at the park, little man was sweating and his face was flushed. He didn't seem to mind though and moved right on to the playground. Boy has he gotten more independent since our last visit ... he went down the slides all by himself {smile, tear}! Anyway, once we got home, Ryan decided some water out of David's COLD water bottle sounded better than out of his sippy cup so he helped himself ...

and, he did very well until the end :) I will say that he has gotten quite good at drinking out of straws lately as he prefers to have whatever you happen to be drinking (tea, coffee, milk, juice, water, doesn't matter). I believe this was his very first attempt with a water bottle all by himself though. Pretty good for a first try! Who knows, maybe the soaking of his shirt was on purpose as I am sure that cooled him off nicely :) But, just in case it didn't, he also enjoyed a strawberry snowstorm fruit chiller after his water.

So, I can assure you that he is nice and cooled off for now {and even clean and ready for bed, thanks to the shower he just had}. And, yes, (1) he is still awake at 1o:00PM, and (2) I am aware that this is not normal. All I can tell you is that it works for us and we will thoroughly enjoy sleeping in tomorrow morning!

We hope you have a great weekend and manage to stay cool :)

On the road again ...

Well, I can tell you that Ryan and I are tired of riding in the car, that is for sure after driving approximately 1,750 miles in 10 days, and we are glad to be back at home with David and sleeping in our own beds. You see, after we got back from our fun trip to Ohio, we spent one day at home getting some laundry done and repacking, and then headed to Augusta, Georgia for three nights/four days to visit the Hall's and Young's.

Note: I know some of you may be thinking that we are crazy for planning all this traveling back to back so just to explain our reasoning, David was completing an ALC {Advanced Leadership Course} class and then out of town at an Army team building event while we were in Augusta, which is why we went when we did. Makes perfect sense now, right?

We had lots of fun in Augusta visiting with Aunt Cathy, Uncle Jack, Joseph, Alice, Uncle Curt, Aunt Carol, Candler, and Catie, and are so glad that we made the trip! Ryan loved watching the birds in the Hall's backyard {Uncle Jack has LOTS of bird feeders}, coloring with markers, going on a walk, playing with the hose and all the balls in the Hall's garage, swimming in the Young's pool, being pulled around on a boogy board, playing in the Young's tree house, playing with Buddy, Gracie, and Annie {the dogs}, eating homemade peach ice cream {especially with a straw}, and going to the fresh produce stand and Dutch bakery {actually, I am the one who really enjoyed these last two things ... I came home bearing peaches, tomatoes, corn, homemade bread, and cookies for David}. We enjoyed several great meals while we were there too {cannot forget those!} ... yummy hamburgers cooked by Joseph, dinner at Poblano's Mexican Grill, lunch at Roly Poly, BLT sandwiches, delicious barbecue a la Uncle Curt, and last but not least, Aunt Cathy's famous rice krispie treats {which I enjoyed for breakfast every morning ... YUM!}. Thanks to everyone in Augusta for having us!!!

And, we are looking forward to spending time at home now for the rest of this month, but we will see what next month brings :)

How Big is Ryan???

SO BIG!!!